


Catching up

by ofstormsandwolves



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Awkwardness, Bisexual Character, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 08:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11181072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofstormsandwolves/pseuds/ofstormsandwolves
Summary: After several years apart, the Doctor and Rose have a lot of catching up to do. And maybe a secret or two to share, too...





	Catching up

“-And then there was the time that Martha and I-”

Rose shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and the Doctor abruptly stopped talking. They were halfway into the slow and arduous zeppelin flight from Bergen to London, and despite Pete booking them first class tickets (“They have little booths Rose! Little booths! We don’t have to share with your mother, do we?”), the flight still had Rose shifting every few moments and frowning out her window.

“Are you alright, Rose?” the Doctor asked after a long moment of frowning at her in confusion.

She nodded, offering him a weak smile across the table of their small two-person booth. Jackie was across from them in her own private booth, catching up on a few hours of sleep before they were back in London and little Tony was bouncing about.

“You’ve been very quiet,” the Doctor noted, voice soft. He leaned across the table, entwined their fingers, watched Rose with worried eyes. “I know this probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you started the Dimension Cannon project, but it is alright, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Rose told him, and although the smile still seemed a little strained, she squeezed his hand in hers. There had been a lot to wrap her head around in the four hours since they’d once more been left at Bad Wolf Bay, but she knew that that was the right answer for her to give. It was her honest answer.

“Is it the stories?” he questioned, still watching her in concern. “I just thought it’d pass the time, you know. We’ve still got a few hours till we reach London, and, well...” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I don’t have to talk if you don’t want me to.”

Rose sighed a little at that, and sat forward in her chair. “It’s not that, Doctor,” she told him, and her eyes were on their conjoined hands rather than his face. “Honestly, I’ve loved hearing about stuff you got up to. An’ I’m glad you had Martha and Donna to keep you company... It’s just, hearing you talk about what happened to you while I was gone made me realise, there’s a lot I need to catch you up on too.”

The Doctor nodded in understanding then. “It’s been a long day,” he said suddenly, though his voice was still soft. “Whatever you want to tell me, it can wait. It can wait till we’re back in London, or until tomorrow, or even next week. I’m not going anywhere, Rose.”

She gave him a soft smile then, looking relieved. He beamed back.

“Go on,” he told her softly, lifting her hand to press a soft kiss to her knuckles before letting her go, “get some sleep.”

~0~0~

Once in London, the Doctor and Rose made the decision to go straight to Rose’s posh apartment rather than heading to the Tyler Mansion, although Jackie made them swear that they would go round to the mansion the next day. They hailed a cab outside the zeppelin port, earning themselves some odd looks from the taxi driver when they explained they had no luggage (the cabbie looked even more perplexed as he seemed to recognise Rose, and she quickly tugged the Doctor into the back of the cab to avoid awkward questions).

Rose’s apartment was actually a modern-build in an old converted factory in east London. Close enough to Canary Wharf for Torchwood work but not too close, and distanced from the hustle and bustle of central London. The interior of the flat was decorated tastefully, although sparsely.

“Wasn’t expecting to still be here,” Rose admitted sheepishly once she’d let the Doctor into the apartment and he’d had a few minutes to look around. “Suppose we’ll have to think about redecorating now.”

The Doctor couldn’t help but beam at that. She’d said ‘we’. Rose grinned back at him.

“Look at you,” she teased as she padded, barefoot to the kitchen-diner, “going all domestic!”

He knew she was teasing him, so didn’t dignify it with a response. Instead, he followed her through to the kitchen-diner and sat at the kitchen island while she made tea.

“So,” Rose spoke up while the kettle boiled, “from what you were saying earlier, sounds like you and Martha were travelling together for a while.”

“A few months,” the Doctor responded, suddenly becoming much more interested in her fruit bowl.

Rose frowned. “Only a few months?” she asked in confusion.

He shrugged. “More or less. It’s... Complicated,” he admitted slowly. “There was this... Thing. We lived through an entire year before it was reversed, so while I remember it, I’m not really sure it counted.”

Suddenly, Rose was beside his barstool, hands on his face as she gently encouraged him to face her. “Want to talk about it?” she asked gently.

The Doctor sniffed. “Nah,” he dismissed. “Not now. I’ll tell you about it, but not tonight. It’s... It’s sort of a long story.”

Rose nodded, but didn’t look convinced. 

“Anyway, Rose Tyler, what about you?” he asked, forcing a sudden grin. “How is it being the Vitex Heiress?”

At that, Rose rolled her eyes. She crossed back to the kettle and finished off making the tea, her back to the Doctor even as she responded to his question.

“I suppose it’s not too bad most of the time,” she admitted slowly. “I mean, I have to attend posh parties sometimes, and Vitex events, but they’re not too often. And of course, there are incidents like the taxi driver earlier.” She glanced over her shoulder at him then. “But it’s not too bad.” She fished the tea bags out of the mugs and crossed over to the kitchen island, taking a seat beside the Doctor. “I mean, the worst thing is if and when magazines and that run articles on me. You know the sort, they get one photo of me while I’m out shopping and somehow it’s news.”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed at that. “They’ve not been hounding you, have they?”

Rose shook her head. “Like I said, it’s not too bad. But every now and then they’ll write an article about how I don’t seem to be seeing anyone, or why don’t I have a boyfriend. Or, worse, they catch a glimpse of me out with Jake, or Mickey, or someone from Torchwood and then start rumours that we’re dating.”

The Doctor blinked at her then. “And are you telling me that in, what, four years of being in Pete’s World you’ve not been on a single date?”

Rose flushed a little then, and studied her mug intently. The Doctor smirked a little. While he wasn’t too sure how he felt about Rose dating other men, clearly none of them had stuck around and thus weren’t a threat. And also, he had always liked it when she got embarrassed.

“A few,” she admitted. “But most were set up by Mum. She only set me up with about three people though, and when they didn’t work out, she left me alone. She understood what I was going through, I suppose, with her losing Dad- I mean, my original Dad-, so she didn’t push after that. An’ all the people she set me up with were nice enough, and they were, like, sons of Dad’s friends for years, but it just didn’t work out.” She paused. “Then there were two others, both from Torchwood. But that didn’t exactly work out either.”

“How long ago?” the Doctor asked, and he surprised even himself with that- he wasn’t jealous, he was just concerned. While it was clear Rose hadn’t wanted to be with anyone other than him, there was a hint of loneliness in her tone.

“The last one was nearly two and a half years ago,” Rose admitted softly. “The first three were all in the first year, and then the two from Torchwood were soon after.”

“And did any of the relationships last very long?” the Doctor asked, and yes, he did sound a little jealous then.

“Never got past a second date,” Rose told him, shaking her head. “The three that Mum set me up with never got past the first date. The only one I felt particularly drawn to was-”

She trailed off suddenly, ducked her head once more, and flushed. The Doctor frowned.

“Rose?”

She bit her lip, met his gaze hesitantly. “Promise me you won’t, I dunno, freak out or something?” she asked, her voice small.

“Promise,” he said, though his voice wavered.

“Ok.” She took a breath. “The last person I, well, went on any dates with, was a colleague from Torchwood. Her name was Tara.”

The Doctor blinked.

“I dated a girl, Doctor. I’m, well, I guess I’m bisexual.”

The Doctor blinked again. “Oh,” he said after a moment. “Ok.”

Then, Rose blinked. “Is that it?” she asked him, and she actually sort of sounded relieved.

He shrugged. “Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked her. “It doesn’t change who you are, Rose. And clearly you still love me, so... Why did you think I’d freak out?”

Her shoulders slumped. “I dunno,” she sighed. “It’s just, it took Mum and Dad a while to get their heads around it, and Mickey, too. I mean, they were supportive and everything, just... They still had to process it, you know? And I just assumed it would be the same with you, that you’d need a day or two to process the information.”

The Doctor just smiled and tapped the side of his head. “Still Time Lord up here, Rose. 900 years of time and space, and you being bisexual isn’t remotely a problem.”

Rose nodded mutely at that, staring at him. “I feel silly now,” she admitted slowly. “After all that panicking on the zeppelin back, and you’re not remotely bothered-”

“Wait, that’s why you kept fidgeting?” the Doctor asked, perplexed.

She nodded, biting her lip. “Well, yeah. You were tellin’ me all this stuff that had happened to you, an’ I realised we both had a lot of stuff to catch each other up on, and my dating Tara was one of them. I mean, we never got past a second date, ‘cause Tara could see that my heart wasn’t really in it, but we’re still friends, and I wanted to tell you before you found out from someone else. Like Jake, or Mum and Dad, or someone from Torchwood, an’ I just started panicking. ‘Cause I knew I had to tell you, an’ soon, but I didn’t know how. I mean, I never even _realised_ I was bisexual before Tara asked me out, you know? Sure, Shareen and Keisha and I used to mess about rating girls at school and stuff, and I found some of them attractive, but I never really thought anything of it-”

Suddenly, her mug was pulled from her grasp and set on the kitchen worktop, then the Doctor’s hands were on her shoulders.

“Rose, calm down. It’s fine, ok? It’s all fine. Like I said, it doesn’t change who you are, and it certainly doesn’t change how I feel about you. You’re still Rose Tyler, ok?”

Rose nodded meekly at that, staring at him wide-eyed. Once she’d calmed down enough, she finished off her tea, and then the Doctor took her mug from her to put it with hers in the sink. 

“I’ll deal with them in the morning,” he told her. “It’s getting late.” Indeed, the sky out of the kitchen windows was already a dark blue, punctuated by the street lights outside. “And I think that’s enough catching up for tonight. How about we get to bed?”

Rose nodded, took the Doctor’s hand in hers, and led him towards the bedroom.


End file.
